Thoughts on learning and teaching

Day: January 23, 2016

This week I was reminded of how much I love learning with my students.

When they teach me.

When they teach each other.

When we learn together.

This week I wanted my kiddos to read an article I had found on Newsela. It was a perfect text to compare to another article we had read on Syrian refugees.

Standing at the copier, I realized I didn’t have the last page. Rats! Back to my classroom to print out the last page. And then the bell rang. No text.

Walking to pick up the kids on the playground I think, why not go digital? Seriously. They all have their emails (finally). We could get the devices (amazing).

We can do this.

The only problem was, I didn’t know the nuts and bolts of “how to” sign up as a student. We would have to try together. It could be a total disaster. But, it could work with a “what’s-the-worst-thing-that-could-happen” attitude.

Reader’s workshop.

I asked students to come to the carpet with their devices.

And we started.

Our objective: to sign in as students on Newsela and read an article. The mission was to figure out the steps. I told them, I’d never done it before, and we needed to figure this out together.

With this challenge came the confusion, “What are we doing?,” the questions, “What’s the username?” and squeals, “I’ve got it!”

With every, “I got it!” I’d get the student’s attention and ask, “How did you get it?”

Slowly, we developed a protocol to sign in.

Slowly, experts in how to sign in popped up who then crawled around the carpet helping others sign in.

Soon they were all at their desks reading, finding the writing tool to take notes in the margins, showing others how to, and asking, “Can we take a quiz?” and “Can we do this at home?”

I’m not saying every day should go this way, but there is something wonderful about students doing the work of how to. It’s messy but so empowering to have that moment of “I got it!”

This week I have to sit back and admire my student’s enthusiasm for learning, ability to work together, to rise to challenges, and to want to read more.

This week I celebrate Newsela, my school that has provided access to devices for all students and student emails, moments of “I’ve got it!” and the fact that I didn’t have the last page of the article to copy.

This post serves double duty this week. One for Ruth Ayers Celebrate This Week link up and one for Margaret Simon’s blog Reflections on the Teche. Check out Margaret’s DigiLit Sunday link up tomorrow for more posts on digital learning. Thank you, ladies, for providing the space to share.

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